This invention is in the field of videotape apparatus. More particularly, it is concerned with videotape decks which operate with tape cassettes. Still more particularly, it concerns a type of videotape deck in which the cassette can be placed on an elevator plate and by being pushed forwardly and downwardly, the elevator plate will move downwardly and latch in its lower, operating position. By operating an eject lever, the elevator plate is lifted from its lower operating position to its upper loading-unloading position. When the elevator plate is in its upper position, the eject plate which is extended from its normal position against a spring pull, is free to move to its normal position, and exert the spring force on the cassette, forcing it off the elevator plate.
In the TV broadcast industry and in cable television, there are systems which are used for broadcasting information and programs which are recorded on videotape cassettes. In normal operations these cassettes, are loaded manually into a videotape deck at the proper time, to suit the programming of the station.
Some effort has been made in the past to automatize broadcasting from videotape cassettes, by using a plurality of videotape decks and manually loading them at one time, and then by automatic scheduling and relay operation, connecting the various decks sequentially to the broadcast apparatus so as to maintain a long duration program of broadcast. Since the time duration of playing of a tape cassette is generally of the order of one hour, to provide a long time duration programming requires a large number of tape decks, which is expensive and inefficient. This invention is directed to the problem of minimizing the expense and apparatus involved in providing a long time duration program, prerecorded and preorganized on a plurality of cassettes, with means to automatically sequentially load and unload each of the cassettes into a single videotape deck.